Do you think it is fair? Maxim said he was not drunk, so maybe it was careless?

not sure I can agree with this regardless of being a fan. He is "one of the greats" in his element of FS i.m.o. yet..... someone dying in an accident .... either the other car was at fault or he was.

Although I never have heard the complete "tail" ... so yet to truly decide - won't see him or Albena skate in comp anyhoo.

Sean I recommend you do a search of the archives for the posts at the time. I think debate was pretty heated (mostly because of his actions). I'm not quite sure how he can say he wasn't drunk - the reports at the time had him breathalised and (well?) over the legal limit. Worse than this was that he'd been stopped shortly before the accident happened by the police for driving carelessly (i might be making this bit up but i think i heard that the first policeman who stopped him recognised him and let him off with a warning). The what ifs about this case are crushing because of how innocent lives might ahve been spared.

Opinion seems to be divided on whether he's best going to prison to serve his time for causing someone's death, or whether being free and able to work to pay compesation to the families affected is better. I'm honestly not sure but err more on the side of him doing time for committing the crime.

Are you sure this did not happen in Canada? It sounds like our Justice System. Time after time, felons get a slap on the wrist in Canada and do their "jail" time in the luxury of their own home. We did finally get justice though for one case. A couple of young men were deported back to their country after killing a woman in a hit and run accident. They were street racing in their fancy fast car. It took two or three years to deport one of them. I think we need to be more like Australia when it comes to deportation.

It does sound like Maxim is remorseful though and wants to do what is right.

Justice isn't supposed to be based on how much money you have. I know that's practically a joke anymore, but I refuse to just accept it silently. So if I have 10 billion dollars, I can just run people over all day and pay their families a few million each time? He should be in jail for whatever time a poor person would be in jail. If he was drunk he was drunk, if it killed someone then he is to blame and should therefore take responsibility. He made a choice to drink and drive and/or to drive irresponsibly, as a result someone is DEAD. Human life should simply never have a dollar figure on it. He should be in jail. How long, I don't know, but it should be measured in years at least.

As Ant pointed out, there was already a long discussion on the subject of Staviski, and drunk driving in general, a few months ago. At the time he'd just gotten two and a half years, which he obviously appealed. Here's my two cents (I know you disagree at least in part, Ant):

Personally, I think that unless someone has no conscience and no ability to feel empathy for others - and those are psychiatric disorders, BTW - then living with the knowledge that you killed another person through thoughtlessness, recklessness or stupidity is far worse than anything the legal system can impose. People who drive drunk don't think "Cool, I'll just run over some people, nobody will care". They either don't think, or their judgement is impaired and they think they are perfectly safe on the road. Which obviously they are not.

Not that a person who caused a vehicular homicide shouldn't be punished, but I don't think tougher prison sentences would deter people from drinking and driving; is that what's stopping all of us from driving drunk? I don't think it is. Prevention programs, increased enforcement of existing laws and police presence on the roads, where drunk drivers can be stopped, and appropriate sentences for non-fatal DUIs - that seems to me as an effective way of dealing with this issue. And, I must say, it's not just drunk driving that's dangerous; there are other situations in which a driver's judgement and abilities might be impaired.

Staviski was stopped on the road and released. That's a law enforcement failure. The victims could have been alive and well if Staviski hadn't been criminally reckless, but they could also have been saved if the police officer who stopped him had done his job. As for the actual penalty, I have no idea what the average sentence is like for a similar offense is in Bulgaria, so I'd rather not comment on that.